


Gravitational

by boonies



Category: Dong Bang Shin Ki, JYJ - Fandom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-01
Updated: 2012-11-01
Packaged: 2017-11-17 13:46:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/552200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boonies/pseuds/boonies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They've only been sharing a room for, like, a week when Jaejoong slips into Yoochun's bed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gravitational

They've only been sharing a room for, like, a week when Jaejoong slips into Yoochun's bed.

 

"I'm cold," he tells Yoochun and shamelessly curls up behind him.

 

Yoochun just sort of stares at the wall, frozen. "And I'm a guy."

 

A puff of air tickles his nape.

 

"And you're American," Jaejoong's says, cold hands sliding under Yoochun's butt.

 

"I'm not American," Yoochun starts, then refocuses. "Wait. Do you think guys just sleep with other guys in America?"

 

"I'm sure some do," Jaejoong waves him off.

 

Yoochun can't argue with that but this isn't about arguing. It's about getting this guy out of his bed.

 

'Cause, really, there was nothing in his contract that said he'd have to share a pillow with some weird pretty-boy.

 

He's not sharing anything with some weird pretty-boy.

 

"I'm straight," he tries again, scooting away.

 

"And I'm cold," Jaejoong whines and sticks his hands back under Yoochun's butt.

 

So Yoochun just scrambles away and up, jumps over Jaejoong, and dives into the other bed.

 

Jaejoong doesn't follow.

 

*

 

A month after moving into the dorms, Yoochun just sort of gives up.

 

Jaejoong seems to always have excess energy but it all floats away at the end of the day and he unceremoniously tumbles into bed. Usually Yoochun's. Which forces Yoochun to sleep in the bed Jaejoong's abandoned. Which is fine, most of the time, because he's too tired to care.

 

And then, one night, Yoochun's too tired to _move_ and this happens:

 

Jaejoong topples over him, sweatpants dangling low on his hips, hair a sticky mess, and says, "How long was that practice."

 

"Seven billion hours."

 

Jaejoong's breath warms the back of Yoochun's neck. "They don't teach math in America, do they."

 

Yoochun grins into his pillow. "Not well, no."

 

And then he doesn't move.

 

*

 

A year into their roommateship, Yoochun sneaks a girl into the dorms.

 

He smuggles her past Yunho, almost gets caught by Changmin, and shushes Junsu who gives him an amused thumbs up, toothbrush hanging from his mouth.

 

And then he gets to his room and his bed and remembers Jaejoong.

 

Jaejoong sort of belongs there, in Yoochun's bed, the way a pillow does, the way a blanket does, the way Yoochun does, which is why Yoochun tends to forget this might be... not normal.

 

"Is that Jaejoong-oppa?" the girl asks, squinting through the darkness. "In your bed?"

 

Yoochun's not sure how she can tell whose bed is whose, so he dials up the charm and hastily leads her to Jaejoong's bed and sits her down, proper and respectful and not to be deterred.

 

"He's asleep," he says, "it's fine."

 

Jaejoong's hand pokes out of a pile of blankets.

 

"Not asleep," he yawns, "but it's fine."

 

The girl scrunches up her face. "I'm... gonna go."

 

Yoochun groans.

 

Once she's scuttled away, Yoochun narrows his eyes in Jaejoong's general direction.

 

"You can't see it," he says, "but I'm glaring at you."

 

Jaejoong's hand flops down the side of the mattress. "You can't see it, but I'm flipping you off."

 

Yoochun grins at the ceiling.

 

*

 

The first time Yoochun has a serious asthma attack, Yunho orders him to stay in bed.

 

Jaejoong stays, too.

 

"Three letter word for stupid," he says, a crossword splayed over their knees.

 

Yoochun watches his profile under his matted bangs. "Idiot."

 

Jaejoong checks, tapping the pencil to his lips. "That's five letters. Shit, Yoochun-ah, how bad are the schools in America."

 

Yoochun takes the pencil and fills in J-A-E.

 

*

 

It's hard to take leftovers to bed when someone's already done that.

 

Jaejoong looks up from a paper plate bursting with japchae.

 

"You're eating in my bed," Yoochun accuses, pretending he wasn't going to be doing pretty much the same exact thing.

 

Innocently, Jaejoong looks up. "I was hungry."

 

Yoochun crawls in next to him, grabbing a pillow for his lap. "You'll make a mess."

 

"That's why we have laundry detergent and the maknae line," Jaejoong reasons, thrusting the chopsticks at Yoochun's mouth. "Say aah."

 

Yoochun opens up, begrudgingly.

 

*

 

When they travel, they're a pile of limbs.

 

Sometimes, all five of them sprawl just wherever, dropping like someone randomly tranqued them, just spit a needle at their necks and knocked them out.

 

Changmin generally goes first, then Junsu.

 

Yunho fights it, but he gives 150% during performances and so he mainly just collapses somewhere nearby, mouth open and head thrown back.

 

Sometimes, usually in Tokyo, Yoochun and Jaejoong huddle together by Yunho's sleeping face and toss popcorn at his mouth.

 

Yoochun always plans to drag himself to bed, but Jaejoong's _like_ a bed, so Yoochun presses into him instead.

 

*

 

Shit happens when Yoochun turns nineteen.

 

They sneak booze into the dorms and Yunho hesitates for a moment, then pretends not to see, steering Junsu and Changmin to the safety of the living room.

 

Yoochun laughs all the way to their room and Jaejoong wraps a friendly arm around his shoulder, sighing, "I'm so happy you can finally drink, American."

 

Dizzy, Yoochun helps him stumble between the two beds, tripping over a rug that wasn't there a day ago. "When did we get a rug."

 

Eyes unfocused, Jaejoong looks at the floor. "Fuck. That's a cat."

 

"When did we get a cat."

 

Jaejoong burrows into his neck, laughing. Uncoordinated as fuck, he pats Yoochun down, pawing for his phone.

 

"Junsu-yah," he drawls, "get your kitty. This is Fort Jaechun. No girls allowed."

 

He drops the phone and sways, holding onto Yoochun.

 

" _Chunjae_ ," Yoochun corrects, trying to stay upright.

 

"Jesus," Junsu mutters, appearing out of nowhere and scooping up the rug and commanding, "sleep it off, hyung."

 

The door shuts with a soft click and then Jaejoong pushes away a little. "Is it still your birthday."

 

Yoochun's fingers dig into Jaejoong's arms for balance. "Somewhere in the world, probably."

 

A hand touches his zipper.

 

"I'm gonna get you what I wanted for my birthday and you didn't get for me," Jaejoong says slowly, unsteadily, and drags the zipper down.

 

Yoochun wants to ask what the hell, but they're falling to the bed, and Jaejoong's hand is on his crotch, pressing insistently, clumsily.

 

"I'm straight," Yoochun says and arches up.

 

"And I'm drunk," Jaejoong says and that's that.

 

*

 

Jaejoong's dating someone.

 

Junsu comes to Yoochun, all hush-hush and in gossip mode and asks, "Who is it?"

 

Yoochun has no idea. He just knows Jae stays out practically every night. Doesn't sleep in his bed. Doesn't hog the blankets. Doesn't steal his pillow.

 

"Is she from the agency?" Junsu mumbles around a mouthful of apple, then pauses. "Is _he_ from the agency?"

 

"I don't know," Yoochun says and it's not pleasant.

 

So Yoochun starts dating someone, too, and their room's empty more often than not. 

 

*

 

Yunho's lecturing them over breakfast one day and Yoochun hasn't slept in a week so he faceplants into his cereal.

 

Jaejoong grabs his hair and nonchalantly pulls him back.

 

Yunho sighs, and Jaejoong nods and drags Yoochun down the hallway to their room.

 

"I was writing," Yoochun apologizes, and isn't really sure why. "I wrote a song. I wrote twenty."

 

Patiently, Jaejoong's tucks him into bed and makes to leave so Yoochun just grabs whatever part of Jaejoong he can and tugs him down and under the covers and over his body.

 

He sleeps all day.

 

*

 

They sleep over at a manager's house once.

 

Changmin and Junsu stay up, wrecking every game system available.

 

Yunho falls asleep over the kitchen table, cheek crushed to an oversized calendar full of activities and schedules that require bending time and space.

 

Jaejoong naps in Yoochun's lap.

 

"I miss our bed," he says and it makes sense to Yoochun.

 

*

 

Jaejoong says, "Thirteen years is too long."

 

Yoochun's running a high fever, shaking, hot and cold and miserable.

 

"It's too fucking long," Jaejoong mutters angrily.

 

Yoochun curls up on his side, buries his head under his pillow, and tries to relax through the pain.

 

"We'll be dead before our contract's up," Jaejoong continues, voice muffled. "We can't keep doing this."

 

A chill runs down Yoochun's spine and sets every nerve ending on fire. "It's fine."

 

Jaejoong's fingers slip under the pillow, tugging on Yoochun's hair. "It's not fine."

 

It's not fine.

 

It's really not fine.

 

"If I go..." Jaejoong starts eventually, half-asleep, half-furious.

 

Yoochun breathes into the mattress. "I'll go, too."

 

*

 

Yoochun can't even pack.

 

He lets the agency do it for him and quietly moves back in with his family.

 

Briefly, he ponders taking his dorm bed with him, but it belongs to the company and. Yeah.

 

Junsu goes home and Jaejoong gets his own apartment.

 

And Yoochun can't sleep.

 

For two days, three, four. A week, a month. Everything's awkward and lumpy and too soft and too firm and it doesn't smell right. It's not right.

 

He naps during car rides, neck bent awkwardly, sleeps in the studio, rubbing kinks out of his muscles, dozes off in attorney meetings, apologizing profusely.

 

One day, he goes to dance practice and his lungs are burning because Junsu keeps saying _one more time_ , and there's no more Yunho to tell him to stop, so Yoochun plops down in a corner, soaked through his sweats and panting violently.

 

Jaejoong collapses next to him, surrounded by a stretch of mirrors, breath coming out in a rush.

 

His hair is a sticky dirty mess and there are ugly dark circles under his eyes. There's even the start of an epic zit on Jaejoong's forehead. He looks like shit.

 

It's kinda nice.

 

"I can't sleep," he says and he doesn't look at Yoochun.

 

Yoochun doesn't glance back, either, except at his reflection in the mirror.

 

Jaejoong looks pissed as hell.

 

"You should be crying to your girlfriend about it, not us," Junsu says, folding himself in front of them, sweat dripping down his neck and back. He pauses as he usually does. " _Boyfriend_?"

 

Jaejoong and Yoochun poke at him in tandem.

 

"We broke up," Jaejoong shrugs.

 

"Good," Yoochun says.

 

Junsu rolls his eyes.

 

*

 

Jaejoong comes to see him on set.

 

Just interested in sageuks, he says, no big deal. He poses dutifully with Min-young and he's nice to the crew and Yoochun watches him suspiciously the whole fucking time.

 

*

 

Someone links him to a gag reel.

 

It's of Jaejoong and Ji Sung goofing off on set. It's adorable. It's... you know. What happens on set. Seriously, it's great that Jaejoong's having fun. So much fun. By himself. With some guy.

 

Yoochun barely bothers putting on a shirt before he's basically teleporting downtown.

 

He alerts management that he'll be dropping by because that's what friends do. They support each other. They return favors. They come visit each other's dramas.

 

Jaejoong spots him immediately, even though Yoochun looks kinda fashionably homeless in his worn wife-beater and baseball cap.

 

Jaejoong's all nervous energy and _hey, let me introduce you_ and then he fucking takes Yoochun's hand, just curls their fingers together and leads the way.

 

Yoochun's got a crazy fucking schedule but he lingers, takes pics, tweets stupid shit, and falls asleep in Jaejoong's trailer, in Jaejoong's chair, surrounded by the scent of Jaejoong's shampoo.

 

*

 

After the funeral, or during, or sometime in between that isn't a complete blur, Yoochun has to ask Junsu to drop him off at the hospital. Or maybe he asks Yoohwan. He asks someone.

 

No one really stops him, or maybe they try and fail or maybe he doesn't register any of that.

 

He just finds Jaejoong's room, on instinct or auto-pilot or because of a kind nurse.

 

He can't even cry or talk or make sense anymore, so he just slips into the hospital bed, mindful of the IV line, and curls up next to Jaejoong.

 

"You're straight," Jaejoong says and it feels like it's been a decade, or like it was yesterday.

 

Yoochun buries his face in Jaejoong's neck and finally sleeps.

 

*

 

"All his cats look like rugs," Yoochun complains.

 

Amused, Jaejoong nods, picking one up by its scruff and examining it. "If we ever move back in with him, these can't come."

 

Junsu scowls from the kitchen. "And that's why we're never moving in together. Again. Ever."

 

Smiling, Jaejoong looks over at Yoochun, petting the cat's fluffy head. "How about you?"

 

Yoochun's throat closes up and it's not even because of the stupid cats. "What?"

 

"I don't know," Jaejoong starts, not very confidently, "I was thinking."

 

"Always dangerous, yeah."

 

Jaejoong punches his shoulder. "Just... you'll be filming your drama and I'll be filming mine and I sleep through my alarm. A lot."

 

None of that makes sense, aside from the part where it does.

 

"I was your alarm clock for, like, six years," Yoochun grins. "I need a break."

 

Jaejoong gives an exaggerated huff. "Do you _want_ me to get fired?"

 

"You're not that great at acting anyway."

 

"Oh my god, he's asking you to move in with him, you idiot," Junsu snaps irritably, throwing a ladle across the kitchen. "Just fucking move back in so he can stop texting me about my cats."

 

Coolly, Yoochun glances at Jaejoong. "You text him about cats?"

 

"Sometimes it's porn," Jaejoong shrugs.

 

*

 

The bed's this weird combination of too much and not enough.

 

"I got it from America," Jaejoong beams, gesturing at the mattress. "It's some fancy sleep number thing that's good for insomnia? I think. The infomercial was in English and I was pretty drunk."

 

Yoochun doesn't know whether to laugh or cry or say _even the floor is fine with you_.

 

Instead he unbuckles his belt and slides his jeans down and sheds his shirt and throws himself on the bed like some stupid overgrown kid.

 

Spooked, Jaejoong just stands there for a minute, then laughs softly and takes off his clothes.

 

They lie side by side, staring at the ceiling and grinning, and Yoochun says, "Is it your birthday yet?"

 

"Depends. Are we using the Mayan calendar?"

 

Yoochun bites back a grin and reaches over with his leg, trapping it between both of Jaejoong's.

 

Jaejoong clamps down with both knees and turns to look at him. "Why? You finally gonna give me that thing I wanted _eight years ago_?"

 

Yeah, Yoochun thinks but says, very aloof, "Unless you don't want it anymore."

 

Jaejoong's eyes are so intense Yoochun almost chickens out.

 

"Nope. Want it even more."

 

Yoochun doesn't ever really leave that bed again.


End file.
